A fairly story last night that slipped by me revolved around one Jim Cornette, always a controversial figure in pro wrestling for one reason or another. In addition to regularly and quite personally ripping into people whose philosophies about wrestling conflict with his own, he has also come under fire for statements and quotes that come off as homophobic or sexist.
Last night, we had another episode of NWA Powerrr premier on YouTube. During the broadcast’s opening match between Nick Aldis and Trevor Murdoch, Cornette put over Murdoch’s toughness with the following quote: “He’s the only guy I know who could strap a bucket of fried chicken on his back and drive a motor scooter across Ethiopia.” This was pretty much out of the blue, delivered in the same fast talking smooth style that he’s known for. This is probably partially why those in the NWA didn’t bat an eye at this, as it was so quick and casual that the racially charged nature seemingly slipped by anyone whose job it would be to edit these shows.
I probably don’t need to explain that this statement is playing to stereotypes. Specifying Ethiopia also gives it a vibe of playing on the poor living conditions of some in the country that leave them to near-starvation. To say the least, this would be an insensitive remark even if it somehow fit in the contrast.
It’s been said that this is not the first time he’s used this exact line.
One of the things about this that is so damaging is that it’s far from just blurting out something on the spot. It wasn’t off the top of his head, it wasn’t something that would be said thoughtlessly. It’s a practiced line. So it’s less like a slip of the tongue that turns out sounding racist, and more like writing a racist poem.
Another major issue here is that this was not only a taped show, but a show that was filmed on October 1st. A full month and a half afterwards it was then made public on YouTube, without this line edited off. To say they had plenty of time to spot and get rid of this line before it caused any fuss is an understatement. Yet it happened, quickly causing a stir. The episode was then promptly pulled, and re-uploaded with the line in question muted a couple of hours later, showing just how easy this kinda thing would’ve been to do.
In recapping the episode after it was re-uploaded, I did not hear the line. I do actually vaguely recall the dead spot on air but due to how quickly he said this, it wasn’t really quiet for that long, so it didn’t stick out much to me. But the fact that it went so long before being removed shows a fair bit of ignorance as those putting the show together had to have seen the episode and heard the line many times over.
Today, NWA has announced the resignation of Jim Cornette.
They released the following statement:
“Effective immediately: Jim Cornette has resigned from the National Wrestling Alliance. As an announcer on the November 19th edition of NWA Power, Jim made remarks during a singles match between Nick Aldis and Trevor Murdoch that were both offensive and do not meet the high standards of decency and good faith of the National Wrestling Alliance.
To ensure that such an error can never happen again, we’ve established new procedures of review for all NWA programming going forward.
We sincerely regret our failure in this regard.”
Shortly thereafter, Corny made this tweet this morning:
Morning everybody! Heard any good jokes lately?
This coming Friday's Jim Cornette Experience (wherever you find your favorite podcasts) is liable to be a good one if you like hearing stupid people told what they can do with their stupidity.
— Jim Cornette (@TheJimCornette) November 20, 2019
Given this, it’s pretty clear that it’s unlikely he resigned willingly. It’s common place nowadays for companies to announce a resignation rather than make it public that someone was fired from a job in situations like this, to minimize the controversy. We’ll know either way on that one by Friday, but that’s just the way it looks to me.
On a philosophical level, there’s a lot I disagree with Jim Cornette on and I certainly wish he wasn’t so prone to attacking people for performing a style of wrestling he does not enjoy. But I do have a level of respect for him as a wrestling mind and I have always enjoyed him as a performer in managerial or commentator roles, remarks like this notwithstanding. It’s unfortunate that he tends to get himself into situations like this.
But the reality is, he’s like this. He will always be like this.
If there’s one thing that’s for certain about Jim Cornette it’s that he does not change. In essence, he is not the kind of man that learns lessons. Losing his job over this – what had to have been a dream job for him in many ways – likely won’t do anything to make him think twice about kicking these things up again. Generally he profits from being controversial regardless, as it no doubt fuels the success of his podcasts and other ventures, and keeps his name relevant for better or worse.
That being the case it’s something of a no brainer for NWA to let him go, even with all the good he can do for them otherwise and even with him being an oldschool name whose existence lends credibility to their attempts at establishing a throwback product. Because he’s done this before and he’ll definitely do it again. And if you’re a promotion trying to rise up in 2019, there’s just no reason to put up with it. There’s no justifying letting him drag down your reputation.
This leaves them in a tricky spot as they have several more episodes of Powerrr in the can left to upload, with Cornette giving commentary on all of them. With all this taking place, it’d be rough to simply carry on with him being the voice of the NWA for the next five weeks or so. While alternative commentary can certainly be recorded, editing him off these shows in a cohesive manner could be difficult given how frequently wrestlers directly interact with him. It might require outright re-recording promos without the live crowd and completely restructuring these episodes. But at the moment that’s probably the least of their worries.
